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EPA salutes Mercyhurst as top green power user in PSAC

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized Mercyhurst University as Individual Conference Champion in the 2015-16 College & University Green Power Challenge for using more green power than any other school in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC).

Since April 2006, EPA’s Green Power Partnership has tracked and recognized the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power use within the program. The Individual Conference Champion Award recognizes the school that uses the most green power in a qualifying conference.

According to the U.S. EPA, Mercyhurst University's green power use of 13 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 1,200 average American homes annually.

In the 2015-16 challenge, the 41 collegiate conferences and 94 schools competing collectively used nearly 2.5 billion kWh of green power. EPA’s Green Power Challenge is open to any collegiate athletic conference in the United States. In order to qualify, a collegiate athletic conference must include at least one school that qualifies as a Green Power Partner, and the conference must collectively use at least 10 million kWh of green power.

Green power is zero-emissions electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, eligible biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro. Using green power helps accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and helps users reduce their carbon footprints.